Ling 240: Language and Mind

1. Ling 240: Language and Mind Phonetics

2. Phonetics The study of physical properties of sound Sounds may not be represented systematically by spelling. Examples?

3. Why not just spell? Sounds may not be represented systematically by spelling because... Same spelling for different sounds Combination of letters representing one sound, Some letters are silent

4. Phonetic Alphabet • One symbol represents one sound • Each speech sound has a distinct symbol • Cross-linguistically applicable

5. IPA

7. IPA symbols for Transcription [k]= car [g]=guard [f]= foot [v]= van [h]= hat [m]=mull [n]= null [ŋ]= ring [p]= pat [b]= bat [t]= tap [d]=dam

8. IPA symbols for transcription [s] = sap [z] = zip [θ] = think [ð] = this [ʃ]= shine [ʒ] = vision [ʧ]= touch [ʤ]= judge [ɹ]= ring [l]= leaf [j] = yes [w]= with

9. IPA symbols for transcription [u]= boot [ʊ]=put [ɔ]= open [æ]=ash [ɑ]= father [ə]=about [ʌ]= but [i]=sheep [ɪ]=ship [ɛ]= end

10. Diphthongs (Complex Vowels) • Complex because they are two-part vowels • But count as a single sound because two vowels are articulated together. Examples: • [ɑɪ] =bite • [ɔɪ] = boy • [eɪ]= bait

11. IPA symbols for transcription PRACTICE! (Remember brackets!) next chin lamb kite cat meet

12. IPA symbols for transcription PRACTICE! next [nɛkst] chin [ʧɪn] lamb [læm] kite [kɑɪt] cat [kæt] meet [mit]

13. The Vocal Tract

14. Consonants vs. Vowels • consonantal sounds: obstruction of airflow in vocal tract • vowel sounds: little to no obstruction of airflow

15. Features of Consonants • Voicing (state of the glottis) • Place of articulation • Manner of articulation • Site for listening to the sounds of American English: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

16. Voicing

17. Voicing

18. Place of Articulation • Articulator: Organ a speaker employs to produce and distinguish certain speech sound (e.g. lips are active articulators and hard plate is a passive articulator) • Place of articulation: Identifies the location of articulators

19. Place of Articulation • Bilabial [p] [b] [m] [w] • Labiodental [f] [v] • Interdental [θ] [ð] • Alveolar [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [ɹ] • Palatal [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ] [j] • Velar [k] [g] [ŋ]

20. Manners of articulation • Stops [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] • Fricatives [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] • Affricates[ʧ] [ʤ] • Liquids [l] [ɹ] • Glides [w] [j]

21. Consonant Chart for English

22. Phonetic features of consonants • To describe phonetic features of consonants, list (a) voicing (b) place of articulation and (c) manner of articulation for consonants (3 features) e.g. [p] = Voiceless bilabial stop [z] = Voiced alveolar fricative

23. Features of vowels • All vowels in English are voiced and involve a continuous flow of air through the oral cavity. English vowels can be categorized by 4 distinctive features: (1) Height of the tongue (2) Frontness/backness of the tongue (3) Tenseness/laxness i.e. whether the tongue muscle is tense or lax (4) Round/unrounded i.e. whether the lips are rounded or not

24. Every vowel is a combination of 4 features. • [i] as in meet is high front tense unrounded vowel • [æ] as in pat is low front lax unrounded • [ɑ] as in pot is low back lax unrounded

25. Vowels of English

26. What knowledge do we have about the sounds of our native language? • We know which sounds are distinctive e.g. “l” and “r” are perceived as different sounds in English but not in Japanese • We know which sounds can (and can’t combine) e.g. Are these possible English words? mbeem, tsub, coofb

27. What do we know about sound in (and not in) our language? • Recognize “foreign accents” • How does a French speaker pronounce the word “this”? • How does a German speaker pronounce the word “think”? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64vBaFOfawI